Ice-World / Cryo-World Settlement (amorphous cryolava / cryomagma)

I was watching a program about the New Horizons space probe and was fascinated by the new revelations about cryolava/cryomagma, and the amorphous planes covering Pluto(98% nitrogen ice).

I'm wondering how this might affect the idea of a human colony on an ice-world/cryo-world. In particular:

• How would you keep structures from slowly sinking into the surface of a planet completely covered by cryolava?

• How fast would this sinking occur?

I'm assuming the habitat will need to be kept warm, and would therefore accelerate the process.

I imagine for small habitats, this might not be a big deal, as they could be on wheels and roll along the surface, although this could scale poorly to larger settlements/cities

Addition

Quick freezing point chart from wikipedia data

pure       freezing 
substance  point 
H2O        273.2 °K 
CO2        216.6 °K
CH4        90.70 °K
CO         68.13 °K
N2         63.15 °K

approx. surface temp. Pluto(for reference): 33°K - 55°K

posted about 5 years ago

kipbits‭

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